Ganassi's team has different look

CONCORD, N.C. — The kickoff for the annual NASCAR Sprint Media Tour was a bit more international than usual, thanks to team owner Chip Ganassi.

MIKE HARRIS

CONCORD, N.C. — The kickoff for the annual NASCAR Sprint Media Tour was a bit more international than usual, thanks to team owner Chip Ganassi.

Ganassi, who fields three cars in NASCAR's Sprint Cup series and two each in the IRL's IndyCar Series and the Grand-Am sports car series, brought most of his driver roster to Monday's event in North Carolina.

Montoya is from Colombia, Franchitti from Scotland, Dixon from New Zealand, Wheldon and Lloyd from England and Rojas from Mexico. The podium where the drivers sat was backed by flags of all their countries.

"You look up here and see all these different flags," Ganassi said, "and let me tell you what comes to my mind: winning.

Ganassi said he didn't purposely set out to put together such an international group.

"When I started racing, I made the commitment to myself and my team that I was going to get the best drivers that were available to our team at any given time, no matter where they come from or whatever the circumstances may be," he noted.

Ganassi added that he believes the international look of his team is a good thing, and particularly for American auto racing.

"I know a number of NASCAR fans are certainly concerned about the international influx and of open-wheel drivers in general coming into NASCAR," Ganassi said. "They said it's bad for the sport. But I can honestly tell you that those NASCAR fans should feel a lot of pride. I think what it's telling you is that the rest of the world is finding out what we already know, and that is that NASCAR is just darn good racing."

NASCAR has leveled the playing field some for the drivers who will have to qualifying on speed for Cup races in 2008.

Under the current rules, teams in the top 35 in car owner points are guaranteed a starting spot in the lineup at each race. The final spot in the 43-car field is reserved for any former series champion who does not qualify by other means.

The rest of the lineup is determined by the qualifying laps of the so-called "Go or go home guys."

One big complaint was that track conditions often change dramatically during the course of a qualifying session and not everyone was getting an equal opportunity.

To remedy that situation, NASCAR has decided to have all of the drivers outside the Top 35 qualify at the end of the session.

There were two other changes announced Monday during the Media Tour visit to NASCAR's Research and Development Center:

— Over the wall crews in all three of NASCAR's top professional series — Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Trucks — will only be allowed to push start their car the length of three pit boxes before having to pull it back into their own pit. In the past, the crew could push the cars as far as necessary to get them restarted.

— NASCAR has decided to ease its tire restrictions in the interests of safety. Teams are currently getting around the testing limits by running at tracks that are not part of their schedule and using tires from companies other than Goodyear, the exclusive provider for sanctioned NASCAR events in the top three series.

This year, Sprint Cup teams will be allowed up to 200 tires, Nationwide teams up to 160 and Craftsman Truck teams up to 120 for the unofficial tests.

"We think for safety sake and for the teams to do proper development, it's time to reevaluate our test policy and reevaluate on what teams are allowed to use as far as tires go," explained NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton. "This does not include the tires that teams get at NASCAR-sanctioned tests, this is above and beyond what the teams get when testing at NASCAR-sanctioned tracks."